The Mechanical Engineering (ME) faculty at Western Kentucky University (WKU) have developed and implemented a Professional Plan to assure that graduates of the program will have experienced key areas of the engineering profession and demonstrated their abilities to perform in a professional manner. This Professional Component has been divided into Engineering Design, Professional Communications, Computer Skills Tools, and Engineering Ethics, with students receiving instruction and practice in each area at least once per academic year.Engineering Design experiences combine a structured approach to solving problems with an appreciation for the art of engineering. Professional Communications and Computer Skills Tools are introduced and then required throughout the four-year sequence to support the execution of design projects. The Engineering Ethics component provides students with a framework for understanding professional expectations and techniques for clarifying the ambiguity that is common in ethical dilemmas.The primary purpose of the Professional Component course sequence is to link all these skills to engineering design and to assess the progress of student capabilities through the curriculum. The integrated structure of the Professional Component courses provides a framework for building upon previous coursework, assessing student progress often, and more quickly adjusting course coverage based on prior assessments to effectively assure that graduates of the program are capable of practicing as engineers upon graduation.

A single experiment evaluated the haptic-visual cross-modal matching of solid object shape. One set of randomly shaped artificial objects was used (sinusoidally modulated spheres, SMS) as well as two sets of naturally shaped objects (bell peppers, Capsicum annuum and sweet potatoes, Ipomoea batatas ). A total of 66 adults participated in the study. The participants’ task was to haptically explore a single object on any particular trial and subsequently indicate which of 12 simultaneously visible objects possessed the same shape. The participants’ performance for the natural objects was 60.9 and 78.7 percent correct for the bell peppers and sweet potatoes, respectively. The analogous performance for the SMS objects, while better than chance, was far worse (18.6 percent correct). All of these types of stimulus objects possess a rich geometrical structure (e.g., they all possess multiple elliptic , hyperbolic , and parabolic surface regions). Nevertheless, these three types of stimulus objects are perceived differently: Individual members of sweet potatoes and bell peppers are largely identifiable to human participants, while the individual SMS objects are not. Analyses of differential geometry indicate that these natural objects (e.g., bell peppers and sweet potatoes) possess heterogeneous spatial configurations of distinctly curved surface regions, and this heterogeneity is lacking in SMS objects. The current results therefore suggest that increases in surface structure heterogeneity facilitate human object recognition.

The Mechanical Engineering faculty at Western Kentucky University have developed and implemented a Design of Experiments Plan to assure that graduates of the program have acquired the skills necessary to design and conduct experiments and analyze experimental results. Instruction is integrated throughout the ME curriculum, with students finally demonstrating the ability to both define and analyze experimental problems in a capstone class. In its first offering, the capstone class required student teams to complete mechanical, materials and thermal-fluid experiences. The student teams were expected to define the requirements, determine tools and methods, execute experiment plans and report findings.The ME faculty members have defined the components of Design of Experiments, set expected levels of student competence, and developed assessment tools to quantify student achievement. Experimental skills are developed in a variety of course structures, including stand-alone lab courses, lab experiences integrated into engineering science and design courses, and demonstration-type experiences in predominantly lecture classes.Two phases of assessment have been implemented to improve the Design of Experiments Plan instruction. The first phase involves assessment for all courses through a collective Peer Evaluation of Course Effectiveness at the end of the semester when a class has been offered. In addition to course-level assessment, program assessment is incorporated into one or the ME Program Outcomes: Mechanical Engineering graduates can measure physical quantities and can plan, conduct, analyze and evaluate experiments. This program outcome is measured using several metrics and is reviewed on an annual basis.The integrated structure of the Design of Experiments Plan provides a framework for building upon previous lab work, assessing student progress, and adjusting lab coverage based on prior assessments to assure that graduates of the program are capable experimental practitioners.

The Mechanical Engineering faculty at Western Kentucky University have developed and implemented a Professional Plan to assure that graduates of the program have experienced key areas of the engineering profession and demonstrated their abilities to perform in a professional manner. The Professional Components within the plan include Engineering Design, Professional Communications, Professional Tools and Engineering Ethics; students receive instruction in at least one course per academic year and are expected to develop within each component. This paper will detail the Professional Tools component, which provides students with computational design tools and prototype realization skills supporting the Engineering Design demands placed on them. Computational tools include software for traditional communication and data processing, solid modeling and analysis, engineering computation and project management. Prototype realization skills encompass the typical metal machining operations necessary to create a functioning reciprocating air-powered engine and activities required for electro-mechanical device construction and testing. Higher level prototyping skills, such as rapid prototyping and CNC machining, are presented to students who can choose to become proficient with these activities or can engage other trained students to assist with their design project needs. The foundation of the four-year Professional Plan is centered on engineering design and problem solving. By exposing freshmen to hands-on projects, sophomores to design-analyze-and-build internal projects, and juniors to team-based prototype realization and external projects, a meaningful senior capstone design sequence involving external customers can validate and refine professional competencies of graduates, rather than introducing students to project activities. Professional tools instruction is interwoven with the other Professional Component instruction. While prototyping training is structured to provide a safe and efficient environment for the students at all times, computational tools are sometimes introduced as required for a project, and at other times well before needed for projects. Refinement to the Professional Plan has been guided by ongoing assessment, which is performed at course level at the end of a semester, and through program outcome assessment reviewed on an annual basis. The paper will detail the Western Kentucky University Professional Tools component of the overall Professional Plan, which provides a framework developing necessary student competencies, building upon previous coursework, assessing student progress, and adjusting course coverage based on prior assessments to assure that departing graduates will be capable of immediately contribute in their professional careers.

The Mechanical Engineering (ME) faculty at Western Kentucky University (WKU) has developed a curricular plan to balance the strengths and weaknesses of three types of design prototyping: rapid, traditional, and virtual. Rapid prototyping refers to any of the modern 3D printing tools, such as Fused Deposition Modeling. Traditional prototyping has been defined as primarily machined parts, ranging from simple fabricated parts to CNC machined components. Virtual prototyping is used to describe designs that exist only in the digital domain as parts and assemblies in a 3D drawing program. Over the entire four years of the WKU ME curriculum, students work on a range of projects that allow them to utilize all three types of prototypes. The ME Freshman Experience allows students to blend the study of design methodologies with basic instruction in machine tools. Each student designs, builds, and tests their own air-powered steam engine. Sophomore Design finds the students working not only on a virtual design project, but also a more extended design-build-test project focused on experimentation. Junior design blends an externally sponsored virtual design along with the ASME Regional Student Competition (RSC). As with the RSC, Capstone Design in the senior year allows students to use a balance of all three types of prototyping as they judge appropriate and/or requested by their external sponsor. Design projects utilizing rapid and traditional prototyping resources require a large commitment by faculty and staff for support. A balance between time, resources, and level of student effort must be maintained, but careful planning can lead to improved student design performance. Virtual prototyping can appear to be easier to manage, but student expertise in creating fidelity between digital drawings and the desired physical parts varies widely. The deficiencies can show up when creating assemblies, but students can often mask the errors. The most important aspect of all these prototyping activities is the need for continual interaction between students, faculty, and staff. Students do not usually possess an innate project management ability, but experience has shown that strong project management skills are necessary for successful prototyping activities. All persons involved in the efforts must understand the prototyping facilities available, the time and resources necessary to utilize them effectively, and the reasonable expectations of the course effort. Students can gain understanding through repeated course exposure, but faculty must present a consistent voice with respect to the technologies available.